EA Piling is privileged to have been awarded the subcontract to weld, test, and install 41 no. conductor pipes at the Kingfisher well pads. These are the first conductor pipes to be installed for commercial oil extraction in Uganda.

EA Piling first provided specialist welding services to join 16m length sections to form 32m length complete pipes. All conductor pipes are 26-inch outer diameter and have a wall thickness of 19mm. All welds were verified using ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing (NDT).

We then used the rotary boring method with temporary casings to drill 1000mm diameter shafts through hard clay down to 30m depth. The casings were vital to support the loose soils present near the surface, and to limit water ingress from the nearby Lake Albert.

Two cranes were subsequently deployed to lower each conductor pipe to depth into the holes. EA Piling designed and fabricated a specialised guidance frame to maintain the verticality of the pipe to within 0.25 degrees and the positioning to within 100mm.

The end result for each was a vertical hollow steel pipe, secured in place with an in situ concrete outer sleeve. These were the starting point for Uganda’s first commercial oil production and the completed oil rigs were opened by HE President Museveni.

EA Piling impressed the client with their unrivalled quality of HSE, and all machinery used passed CNOOC’s rigorous quality and maintenance inspections. These outcomes place EA Piling as the only piling contractor in the country with proven experience in installation of conductor pipes for the oil and gas sector.